"I just thought he was pressing on offense," said State College boys' basketball coach Drew Frank. "His shot selection began to suffer and as things started to frustrate him on the offensive end, I saw it began to carry over to his defense. He was just out of sync. He wasn't the same player that we've seen."

The Morse of old emerged Saturday, when he scored 10 points -- including No. 1,000 on a jumper in the first half -- and played a key role in the Little Lions' heart-stopping 56-54 win against Hempfield in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament.

"I talked to coach about letting it come and not thinking about it, not even in terms of 1,000 points, but just my play overall," said Morse, who became the seventh State College player to eclipse 1,000. "I had been a little frustrated the latter portion of the season and he told me to just let the game come to me and keep penetrating. I just tried to focus on that going into the game."

Morse, who last summer gave a verbal commitment to play basketball at Penn State, entered this season with 682 points, leaving 1,000 clearly within reach if he maintained his 13.9 scoring average of a year ago. He was 15 shy when State College opened the District 6 playoffs against Hollidaysburg but after scoring 10 points during a 60-31 rout, Morse was lifted with 4:27 to play. That left him five away entering the district final against Altoona, a team Morse had averaged 13.4 points against in eight previous games.

Morse turned in a game to forget. He was held scoreless until the closing seconds and finished with two points.

But Morse's struggles only helped to steel his determination.

"If you're a good jump shooter, you can miss five in a row but you're going to take the next five because they could go in and you can get into a rhythm," said Morse, a junior. "I think I missed my first two shots (against Hempfield) and then hit my next three in a row and felt like I was in a rhythm. Then you think every one is going to go down."

On the final play against Hempfield, Morse put up a jumper from the left side that fell short but Jon Stupar caught it and banked it in for the decisive basket as time expired.

"Coach told us we were either going to win it on that possession or go to overtime," Morse said. "There was no way they were going to get a shot.

"Gabe (Norwood) came off the first cut and he couldn't get it so we passed it to Stupar. I came off a cut and it just so happened we didn't get the shot exactly where we wanted it from and Stupar got stuck at the top (of the key) so he handed it off to me with three seconds left. I tried as quick as I could to get the best shot possible."

Even though Morse's last-gasp shot didn't fall, State College is moving on. The Little Lions will face Plum at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.